Portrait of model Liddie Holt with her friend Vincent the Daschund

I am truly delighted to receive a prestigious Association of Photographers' 
GOLD award!
The AOP Awards are generally acknowledged as the photography BAFTAs and
gold is their highest accolade.  There is no given with a gold; some years
there are none awarded, it is simply at the discretion of the judges.
This year there were eight golds and two of them went to women photographers,
this ratio reflecting the current statistics of women photographers working
within our industry.
I received my award in the Fashion & Beauty category, and my fellow female
awardee is the talented Tina Hillier for her Documentary series. 
Click to see all of this year's finalists.

My thanks to all of the team who worked on this story with me: Art Director
Jo Bell, Stylist Maria Francolini, Hair & makeup Lizzie Court, Photo Assistant
Julie Stewart and of course Liddie Holt & Vincent(pictured) and Forever
Young magazine for publishing.
Although the nature of our industry has changed in recent years as traditional
magazines disappear from the newsstands, it is our love of photography
that continues to fire our passion to create what we always hope will
be beautiful, memorable imagery. 
Pictured with me above are my friend and talented art director Jo Bell, and
also my wonderful and supportive agents Anita Grossman & Rosie Harrison
of A&R CREATIVE who have been representing me a record-breaking twenty five years!
Massive thanks to Clara Mercer from the British Fashion Council who judged
my category and chose my winning picture!  And to Seamus, Rachel, Nick and all
team AOP for putting on a cracking show at the East Wintergarden, Canary Wharf.
See you all next year!
Wendy x

p.s. The exhibition showing all 200+ Awards finalists is still on show
at One Canada Square until the end of May and, as overheard at the Awards
party, "I've just seen the exhibition and was surprised at how much better
the pictures looked in print than on my screen." Now there's an idea...

For more photography by Wendy Carrig please visit her website